The present invention relates to an apparatus for inserting tufting straps in a mattress.
It is known that mattresses, in order to restrain the external padding and prevent excessive expansion due to the compression of the internal springs and of the filling material, are kept flat by a plurality of retention elements, known as tufting straps, one of which is shown for the sake of clarity in FIG. 1. As shown in the figure, the tufting strap is designated by the letter P and is constituted by a tension element T, which consists of a tape provided, at its opposite ends, with clips S1, S2 that are suitable to abut, in the active position, against disks D1, D2 detailed hereinafter in order to keep the mattress substantially flat.
Currently, the tufting straps are inserted with predominantly manual methods, which entail excessively long times and high costs.
The aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that allows to automate the application of tufting straps.
Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide an apparatus that has a simple structure, is relatively easy to provide in practice, safe in use, effective in operation, and has a relatively low cost.
This aim and this and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved with an apparatus whose characteristics are defined in the appended claims.